Emerald-Eyed
by Chibi-Shibi
Summary: Parvati attends her sister's wedding.


Main:  
[Emotion] Jealousy  
Opt:  
[Word] Extravagance  
[Colour] Emerald Green  
Buzzwords:  
Familial love  
Conflict  
Sibling rivalry  
Traditional family values

Special Rule: Write setting you have never written before: Weddings

* * *

Parvati looked around the room that welcomed her as she walked in. She knew, from past experience, that Indian weddings were usually very elaborate and elegant, but Padma had really outdone any of the others she had seen.

She herself, had not been a big part of the planning process of her twin's wedding. When she had asked why, months ago now, Padma had come up to her with excitement in her eyes, and told her that she wanted it to be a surprise, almost like a small gift, since she knew that Parvati loved the extravagance of the weddings, and coupled it along with the fact that Parvati would have had to travel quite a distance. She would also need to have taken a fair amount of time off work.

Parvati had thought that it was a stupid idea. If most of the family could have been a part of it, why couldn't she? She had never complained about the distance! Secretly, she had suspected that Padma may have had a different reason, something bordering on jealousy or inferiority to her.

She had pushed the thought aside for a while, determined to be happy for her sister. Padma had found a man she wanted to spend her life with, and this was a celebration of that. The fact that she herself would never be able to have such a day, at least, not with her family's views on certain things, was inconsequential now.

She headed towards the crowd of people that had gathered around the couch at the centre of the hall. Everyone was dressed in their best, as far as she could see, and they were surrounding the bride-to-be, all smiles on their faces. As she approached, her aunt and a few others turned to her, beaming.

'Parvati! There you are! We thought you were going to miss the event!'

She walked into her Aunt Sheila's arms, reminding herself that whatever hesitation and pain she felt towards this woman's beliefs or past actions were to be wiped away, or at least she would have to pretend as much.

"_Arre_, who comes so late to their own sister's wedding so late? All you young ones are way too busy for family these days," another of her relatives joined in. She was a cousin, from what Parvati recalled. Her mind usually slotted all the people she only vaguely knew and met at occasions such as these into a box that told her that her only interaction with them would be to 'smile-till-your-cheeks-hurt'.

So she did. She smiled as graciously as she could and quickly extracted herself from the grasp of the two who had accosted her. She took a deep breath before wading through the rest of the crowd to finally get to Padma, encountering much of the same reaction on the way.

_'You look beautiful, Parvati. Be sure not to outshine the bride herself!'_

_'When will we see a man with you, beta? You always come alone.'_

_'You look so different from the last time we saw you!'_

As she deflected their comments, compliments, and some veiled insults, she wondered how Padma did it. Her sister actually enjoyed spending time with their family and did it as frequently as she could. Which of course, meant that she was more familiar with a lot of the people than Parvati was and did not receive the 'Oh but you've grown so much' remarks that Parvati felt would now make her ears bleed if she heard it one more time.

Speaking of Padma, she was sitting on the couch, sharing it with several of their cousins, when Parvati approached her. Even though she had expected her to look beautiful, Padma took her breath away when she saw her.

She was wearing emerald green, a colour that was not common to Indian brides, but Parvati suspected it was to honour Theo and his Hogwarts house. As were the decorations, from what she could see. While it was not unusual for the weddings to have themes, Padma had had the venue decorated almost entirely in the same emerald, along with bronze and a few other metallics. It was almost as if the whole place was glowing.

_Glowing with joy,_ a little voice piped up in the back of her head. Parvati frowned, a twinge of pain rising up in her chest, but quickly managed to distract herself by starting a conversation with her sister.

"Finally! First, I waited for you two to stop dancing around each other for years, and then when you finally got together I had to wait years for him to propose to you!" she exclaimed, with a lightness that did not come from her heart. Padma didn't notice the forcedness and got up from between the gaggle of people surrounding her, to embrace Parvati.

"I'm so glad you're here, Paati," she said, using the old nickname that had stuck since the time they had been too young to say their own names properly. Then, softer, she added, "I was dying of boredom with all these people."

Parvati smiled back, but she knew Padma was only saying the last bit without meaning it. She could see the joy in Padma's eye. She really did like this kind of vast family celebration. And yet, Parvati, who looked so much like her, was reminded of the fact that she would never fit in.

The two conversed casually and easily for a few moments before Padma was called away for some ritual that Parvati did not particularly care to attend.

But she stood there, where they had been talking, and her mind began to spin an alternate dimension for her.

_She was the one on the big couch, sitting, surrounded by people she loved. No, not her family, except perhaps Padma herself. The rest were people she had chosen to call her own. Hermione, and maybe the rest of the Trio. Blaise Zabini, odd as that friendship had initially been to people. More than half of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. The Goldstein sisters, Delia and Edeline, from work. And then some._

_They were all there, just like today, with smiles on their faces. They would be celebrating her. Yes, she liked the spotlight, but this was more than just the love of attention._

_She was dressed in something almost blinding, but she knew that the person who would be with her at the altar would love it. The person she loved and hoped to make happy for the rest of their days…_

_Lavender_.

And there, lay the difficulty.

She had come out to her family years ago, but they had never accepted it. In fact, she had resigned herself to the fact that she would never accept it.

She felt bile rise in her throat._ It isn't fair. _

The thought repeated itself in her mind, multiplying until it was the only thing that she could think about.

_It isn't fair._

_Why should she get it, if I can't?_

_Why can't I get it? I've done nothing wrong!_

_How could she sit there, and enjoy it like that, knowing how they've treated me?_

_How could she betray me?_

_Padma!_

She looked over into the other room, where the main event of the wedding itself was starting, instinctively looking for her sister.

The ceremonial fire was lit in the centre of the room, its flames dancing on each of the glittering decorations. _A fire to celebrate their union,_ she remembers, from the stories they used to hear as kids.

She clenches her fists. Her wand, that was as always transfigured into a ring on her finger, pulsed with the force of her wordless magic. The wand transformed back into its normal form in her hand, as she started walking towards the wedding hall.

The bride and groom were sitting on the pavilion, undergoing whatever rituals were expected of them, and occasionally sneaking glances at each other, but as Parvati approached, Padma looked up at her.

Immediately, from Parvati's expression, the younger twin realised something was wrong. She stood up from the altar, causing everyone who had, until now, been celebrating or otherwise gossiping with their relatives, to gasp aloud.

"Parvati?" she asked, concern and confusion etching her face. Parvati did not reply with words, choosing to glare at her instead. A few people started murmuring around them.

_"Look at her, shamelessly disturbing our most sacred rituals!"_

_"What's more, she's even ruining her own sister's wedding…"_

_"Oh, don't you know, girls like her, they're a little gone in their heads."_

_"Yeah, we should have guessed when she tried to tell us she wanted to marry a girl!"_

_"Is she one of those, then?"_

Parvati internally winced at their words but did not say a word. But just as their mother and aunt were about to step forward, Parvati's wand tip was placed at Padma's throat.

Everyone stilled. One could have heard a pin drop in the large hall.

"_Didi?_" Padma said, her voice quivering. Between the two of them, they almost never used the honorific that was usually reserved for the older sister, given that they were twins.

Parvati's heart melted a little at the word. But then, the green-eyed monster returned. It was almost as if each shining rhinestone, each flower, each piece of silk that was lighting up the room in the alternatingly warm and cool shades of bronze and emerald, were mocking her.

"Parvati, beta, please," her mother begged, looking unsure of herself, and not daring to move. Parvati's mind replayed the scene, when she had told her mother, partly scared, and partly excited, that she had a girlfriend. She remembered everything her mother had said in response. She could almost feel the slap burning on her face.

She clenched her wand tighter until her knuckles were white.

Then, with a sudden motion, she pointed the wand away from Padma, and at the lit fire.

A single spell later, the fire was overflowing from its pyre, starting to engulf the pavilion, and everyone was screaming and running towards the nearest exits. It was utter chaos, although it was obvious that everyone was either too far away from it or competent enough as a wix to not be hurt by the fire.

The two sisters, however, stood frozen for a few seconds, staring at each other, the light from the fire dancing into their eyes.

Padma was the first to turn away, tears streaming down her cheeks. She didn't look back, not even once, to see her sister, bathed in the green-tinted light which aptly represented the poisonous emotion that had led to all this.


End file.
